We never thought the wonderful animated series Infinity Train would get the chance to tell another story. We wondered if there was life left in the beloved Teen Titan Go! We never bothered to imagine whether Looney Tunes’ Tweety Bird might be a good detective. And yet all that and more are coming this year to Cartoon Network and/or HBO Max.
Warner Media just announced a bunch of new and returning shows, including, most excitingly, “a new series from Steven Universe writers” according to the Hollywood Reporter. However, such a series isn’t mentioned in the gigantic press release Warner sent out, and there are no details whatsoever. You may consider locating a grain of salt for future consumption, but there’s still plenty of great news and new shows on the way.
We’re thrilled to learn there’ll be a new season of Infinity Train, whose third season premiered on HBO Max to seemingly little fanfare. The description and teasers are unsurprisingly vague:
Infinity Train: Book Four – Two old friends must explore the inner puzzles of the Infinity Train – and their relationship – in order to return home, together.
The new Teen Titans Go! spinoff will be set solely in the musical “The Night Begins to Shine” universe, based on Cyborg’s favourite song of the same name. The gang first visited the world in a four-part miniseries that aired back in 2017:
Teen Titans Go! The Night Begins to Shine – In this spinoff series of the Cartoon Network smash hit Teen Titans Go!, Robin, Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire journey back to the world of Night Begins to Shine when the musical land falls victim to a sinister new threat. Together the Titans must protect the only key to the world’s salvation, a magical mixtape.
Another new series is Jade Armour, which sounds — and looks — amazing:
Jade Armour – In production with TeamTO and featuring a talented all-female creative team, Jade Armour centres around the martial arts-loving Lan Jun, an unlikely teenage heroine who must learn the ancient secrets of her family and uncover the unexpected, all while navigating life as a teen.
Three new Ben 10 specials sound like they’re set through time and relative dimensions in space:
Ben 10 specials – Produced by Man of Action (Big Hero 6, Generator Rex), three 44-minute specials based on the hit Cartoon Network series Ben 10 are set to premiere in April 2021. The first, Ben 10,010, takes place in the future when a disillusioned Ben 10000 is called out of retirement to recruit his 10-year-old version from the past to work together to save a future under siege. The second special, Ben Gen 10 follows Ben as he meets a young Generator Rex on the run from a hostile Providence working through a series of misunderstandings in order to save the world from being infected with alien DNA. In the final instalment, Alien X-Tinction, the Tennysons are attacked by a villainous, dimension-hopping Omni-alien, and soon meet a parallel universe version of Max who opens the door to hosting multiple Bens and Gwens, forming an alien hero army to combat this threat.
Meanwhile, Craig of the Creek, Total Drama Island, and Victor and Valentino all have new seasons coming; Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai has also been renewed for a second season, which is impressive given that its first season doesn’t even have a release date yet.
[referenced id=”1672728″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2021/02/hbo-maxs-gremlins-secrets-of-the-mogwai-reveals-its-wildly-over-talented-voice-cast/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/17/iawhk2sdnaht9jkykhmi-300×150.jpg” title=”HBO Max’s Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai Reveals Its Wildly Over-Talented Voice Cast” excerpt=”Don’t get them wet. Don’t feed them after midnight. And most of all, don’t ever doubt their ability to pull in a bevy of bona fide Hollywood stars to do voices for a cartoon based on an ancient pair of critter movies from the ‘80s.”]
Additionally, there’s a bevy of newly announced content in development:
The Amazing World of Gumball Movie (working title) – Produced out of EMEA, the upcoming TV movie is based on the hit Cartoon Network series The Amazing World of Gumball, which follows the hilarious misadventures of Gumball Watterson and his goldfish best friend, Darwin.
Family Mash-Up (working title) – A modern-day The Brady Bunch meets Pitch Perfect when a single mum and three sons and a single dad with three daughters fall in love and get married despite their kids being in two fiercely competing acapella groups. The music-filled live-action comedy is created by Michael Poryes (Hannah Montana, That’s So Raven).
Gross Girls – From Cartoon Network Studios with producers Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) and Naomi Scott (Other People) alongside creators Daniela Hamilton and Scott Yacyshyn, Gross Girls is a smart, sophisticated animated comedy about Chuck and Zoey, two best friends trying to survive middle school without losing any of their trademark stinky, hairy, mad science-y grossness. In spite of jerky brothers, judgey classmates, and “common decency,” these two girls boost each other up and encourage each other to be 100% themselves. Because with the right best friend, everything is an adventure…even puberty.
Tweety Mysteries (working title) – Tweety Mysteries is a hybrid live-action/animated adventure from Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Television that follows a curious tween investigative journalist and podcaster named Sydney and her sidekick Tweety bird. Working together the pair must solve various local mysteries in their small, quirky Washington state town.
The idea of Tweety Bird solving mysteries with a tweenaged podcast makes me feel like I’m one million years old and have just been stabbed repeatedly with sharpened icicles, but that has absolutely no bearing on the potential quality of the show for its actual target audience.
We know these new series will be accompanied by the previously announced series Tiny Toons Looniversity and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Unicorn: Warriors Eternal; what we don’t know for certain is where all these series will air. HBO Max has already claimed Infinity Train and Gremlins, and it makes sense for the rest to premiere or stay on Cartoon Network. Still, there’s always a possibility of another series getting relocated to the streaming service.
Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for where these shows will end up in Australia.